5 Minutes With Sarah Prineas

Sarah Prineas' much anticipated The Magic Thief debuted on June 3rd, and right now there's a running battle in my house between me and my fourteen year old son- which one of us will get to take the magic and run first? Well, my boy might win the book war, but *I* get to spend five minutes with the author. Personally, I think I won this one!


Even before The Magic Thief debuted, it was already getting a lot of attention: a starred review from Kirkus, part of Booksense's Top Ten Picks. Did those high expectations make waiting for the debut more exciting, more terrifying, or was it a little bit of both?

It's strange, actually. I'm fascinated by the book-publishing process (which is why I blog about it so often), and in how a publishing team creates 'buzz' for a book. The interesting part of it is that my books weren't originally bought by HarperCollins as lead titles, but the excitement about them has been growing, slowly, over the past year, so I've seen the PR machine in action, revving up. In some ways, the slow build lets a lot of pressure off me--the book has already exceeded their expectations for it (I suspect). My editor says things like, "...if the books do as well as we hope..." and I'm not sure, exactly, what they hope for, or what 'well' means. I'm just excited to see what might happen.

It's always nice to see an old-school geek make good (it certainly proves that we do too leave the basement, thank you very much!) If you were opening the geek gateway to the unenlightened, which video game, anime, or book would you present as the most delectable bait?

At the University of Iowa, where I work part-time, I taught an honors seminar on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and about two thirds of the class had seen the Lord of the Rings movies but not read the book. The movies were *such* a great gateway to the book (and to further geekdom), because they take up some of the most obvious themes, and I think they capture some of the epic glory of Tolkien's created world. The book itself--The Lord of the Rings--can be tough going in places, but for those who soldier on through the marshes and the depths of Moria, and the no-man's-land outside of Mordor, the rewards are huge. The book introduces so many basic fantasy tropes, that further reading in the genre can be a lot of fun, as you encounter them again. I know at least two members of the last seminar class turned into hardcore fantasy geeks after finishing The Lord of the Rings.

You have used blogging for pre-writing and leaf-raking for plot snarls. I want to know- have you yet found a writing application for your mini-trebuchet?

Hmmm. I probably could think of one. It's a desktop trebuchet, and I can imagine crumpling up pages of cut text and firing them into the recycling bin. I could also load it with marbles and fire it at people who interrupt me during a writing session...

You've finished writing all three Magic Thief books, but you mentioned you already miss the universe. If you never had the opportunity to sell a fourth book, would you write another just to spend more time with Conn and Nevery? (No spoilers, we're just going to assume everyone survives!)

Okay, you go ahead and assume...

This is a tough question. If I share any trait with my protagonist, Conn, it's my pragmatism. I would *love* to write more Conn and Nevery books, but if the vagaries of the publishing world indicate that I wouldn't be able to sell another one, I probably wouldn't write it--I'd move on to something else. I've got several ideas I'm excited about, that I'm already planning to work on after the Conn and Nevery series ends.

Finally, a most burning question- which is harder, mastering Rachmaninoff or writing a book?

Ohhhh, playing Rachmaninoff (or Chopin, or Bach, or whatever) is harder by far. Language is my medium. Writing a book is hard, of course, but as a writer it's my thing; I understand plot and story and character and voice on a whole 'nother level. Music is something I can understand on the surface, but can't be immersed in the way a musician can, the way I get immersed in my writing when I'm in the zone. However I've learned a lot, from piano, about expressive mediums and artistry. When a pianist plays--a real musician, I mean--she both interprets the piece and effaces herself from it. You should watch a video sometime of Horowitz playing--it's like his hands are detached from his body to the point where he's the medium through which the music is translated to the audience. A writer is somewhat similar--she interprets her imagined world for the reader and (hopefully) effaces her own 'voice' and self from the story.